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RIM Engineers Explain Which Android Features Will Not Be Supported On The BlackBerry PlayBook

When we hear there is another OS device coming out and that said device will run Android apps we all have reason for excitement. That was the case for the BlackBerry PlayBook – when word first came out that the PlayBook would be able to run some Android features, people were definitely curious about it.

But sometimes there isn’t a happy ending and RIM engineers have come out and stated which Android features you won’t be seeing on the PlayBook.

Android’s famed battery-sucking Live Wallpaper, SIP and SIP VoIP, anything built using the Native Development Kit, apps containing only App Widgets, and apps containing more than one activity tied to the Launcher.

In addition, any packages which rely on Google Maps, in-app billing services, Android’s text-to-speech engine, or the cloud-to-device messaging system will all be rendered unusable under the company’s runtime system.

Well that hurts. So basically the main features that make Android, “Android” won’t be making its way to the PlayBook. Existing owners for the PlayBook can’t be happy about this, but then again, I don’t think anyone necessarily bought the PlayBook with the intent of using a bunch of Android features on it. I could be wrong though.

New word of lacking Android integration enough to make you forget completely about the PlayBook?

Um… no? Don’t get confused, the NDK is not the SDK. Almost anything built in the SDK will be usable, so long as it doesn’t interface with Google Maps, Text to Speech, or… well just read the list above. It’s not huge.

Or Rim for that fact. I cringe when people pull out their dingle..Blackberrys.

Calvin Williams

Even a guy on the radio said something like “and the 5 people left that still have blackberry’s”

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